Pope Francis joined the delegates of General Congregation 36 in the aula on October 24. There is a well-established tradition that on the occasion of a Jesuit General Congregation, the Holy Father meets with the delegates and this has happened as an audience in the rooms of the Vatican. This Jesuit Pope chose to go to the Jesuit Curia to meet his Jesuit brothers.
He was greeted upon arrival by Father General Arturo Sosa and the superior of the Jesuit Roman Curia community Fr Joaquín Barrero and led to the aula where he joined the delegates for morning prayer.
Pope Francis came to the General Congregation with a message that showed how he is coming to see what the Society of Jesus can offer in service of the Church and of the world. It is a way connected to his own ministry. His whole intervention was characterised by an openness to what lies ahead, a call to go further, a support for caminar, the way of journeying that allows Jesuits to go toward others and to walk with them on their own journey.
The Pope recalled the encouragement of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. “As my predecessors have often told, the Church needs you, counts on you and continues to turn to you with confidence, particularly to reach the geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach, or find it difficult to reach,” he said.
Quoting St Ignatius, the Pope recalled that a Jesuit is called to converse and thereby to bring life to birth “in every part of the world where a greater service of God and help for souls is expected”. Precisely for this reason, the Jesuits must go forward, taking advantage of the situations in which they find themselves, always to serve more and better. This implies a way of doing things that aims for harmony in the contexts of tension that are normal in a world with diverse persons and missions. The Pope mentioned explicitly the tensions between contemplation and action, between faith and justice, between charism and institution, between community and mission.
The Holy Father detailed three areas of the Society’s path:
- The first is to “ask insistently for consolation”. It is proper to the Society to know how to console, to bring consolation and real joy; the Jesuits must put themselves at the service of joy, for the Good News cannot be announced in sadness.
- Next, Francis invites us to “allow ourselves to be moved by the Lord on the cross”. The Jesuits must get close to the vast majority of men and women who suffer, and, in this context, the Society must offer services of mercy in various forms. We who have been touched by mercy must feel ourselves sent to present this same mercy and do so, he added, in an effective way.
- Finally, the Holy Father invites us to go forward under the influence of the “good spirit”. This implies always discerning, which is more than simply reflecting, how to act in communion with the Church. The Jesuits must be not “clerical” but “ecclesial”. They are “men for others” who live in the midst of all peoples, trying to touch the heart of each person, contributing in this way to establishing a Church in which all have their place, in which the Gospel is inculturated, and in which each culture is evangelized.
These three last words are graces for which each Jesuit and the whole Society must always ask: consolation, compassion, and discernment.
Read the full text of what Pope Francis said to the General Congregation.
